DeKalb County struggling to recruit police officers

You may never fully appreciate them until you need them, but one county is having a hard time recruiting new police officers.

Being a cop isn't the draw it used to be and right now the DeKalb County Police Department has a major shortage of officers.

Major Stephen Fore says DeKalb County PD is about 70 percent staffed, and that means officers are working overtime and response times to your emergencies may suffer.

The starting pay for a DeKalb County police officer is around $38,000 a year, and a lot of young people we spoke with says that's not enough money for them to take the job.

Clark Atlanta University student Morriss Biglow switched majors from criminal justice to computer science because he says a career in law enforcement isn't worth the low pay and high risk.

But newly sworn in officers say the amount of green they'll make isn't why they decided to wear blue.

Officer Matthew King was emotional after graduating from the DeKalb County 107th Police Academy. He says working as a police officer in a time when the profession is highly scrutinized is an obstacle he'll overcome, not with a gun on his hip, but rather the heart in his chest.